Spatially Variable Fat-Water Separation Using Short 2DRF Pulses for Fast Imaging

Jing Yuan¹, Bruno Madore¹, Lawrence P. Panych¹

Conventional spatial-spectral pulses can only produce uniform fat-water contrast in the whole FOV. Their usefulness may be limited by the relatively long duration, especially for short TR sequences like SSFP. In this study, we demonstrate that more flexible spatially varying fat-water contrast can be achieved within the FOV with a novel-designed shorter 2DRF pulse. Up to 3.7X reduction factors in pulse duration has be achieved. The proposed approach may also lend itself to reduced-FOV imaging and accelerated acquisitions. The proposed shorter pulses should benefit applications in MR-guided therapy where ROIs for separation may be pre-specified.